Plausable deniablity

[martinexsquaddie]

does this ever really work?

[Royal]

Yes.

I'm trying to think of an example that doesn't violate OpSec...

[martinexsquaddie]

it just seemed slighty dubious how the americans go about using diffirent weapons and dressing as Vietcong seemed a bit pointless at being deniable. 6 foot white bloke turns up dead riddled with bullets who's going to belive its not an american?

[UkrainianAmerican]

it just seemed slighty dubious how the americans go about using diffirent weapons and dressing as Vietcong seemed a bit pointless at being deniable. 6 foot white bloke turns up dead riddled with bullets who's going to belive its not an american?
Could be mistaken for a frenchie.

[Herrmannek]

this reminds me joke about USA Spy.

Agency chosed from long list of names one guy who pased test better then others, they learned him everything he need to infiltrate secret russian base. when he was droped in deep winter on russian territory somewhere in syberia. His first task was to gain help from locals to warm up and get some info...So he wen't to first house to ask for help. He some story about losting in woods and tried to enter house...then woman who opened door said that she will not let him in because he is US. spy, he tried to deny, but woman still was saung he is a spy. Resigned he asked what denounced him...
-accent ?
-No-answered woman

-clothes?
-no-she answered

-story?
-no- she anwered again

-then what for the god's sake
-You are 2 metres high, black man, who ask for hot tea in middle of night in centre of syberia.....

[oldsoak]

Heard a story where this SF bloke went for a skiing holiday in Austria and starts knocking off one of waitresses at the resort. 3 years later, he's in Boz and guess who he bumps into ? Ooops ! :oops: Probably urban legend, but it must be a nightmare to factor in when planning a little walkabout.

[11F5S]

it just seemed slighty dubious how the americans go about using diffirent weapons and dressing as Vietcong seemed a bit pointless at being deniable. 6 foot white bloke turns up dead riddled with bullets who's going to belive its not an american?

Dressing in the VC garb wasn't for deniability as much as it was to give us the advantage of a moments hesitation on Charles's part.

Sterile gear is all that's needed for plausible deniability...just because a body is tall and white doesn't prove you were in the US Army or on a US Army operation. It's not a matter what another govt believes it's a matter of not being able to prove it. IE: Dog tags are rather incriminating evidence; Tattoos of jump wings etc are also.

[martinexsquaddie]

with the advent of cnn and bbc
couple of white dead men turn up say North Korea
absolutly nobodys not going to belive they were not americans

[Beowulf]

with the advent of cnn and bbc
couple of white dead men turn up say North Korea
absolutly nobodys not going to belive they were not americans

Yeah it's pretty easy to tell if they look American, but can you tell who they're working for? PMC? another country? They could be mercs of some sort, that's plausible deniability. It's plausible that they weren't working for the us govt.

[mocking_loudly_died]

I often deny that I'm even human.

Works against crazed militias.

"Who goes there?!" - miltia man

"Oh, I'm not from the government - I'm a Zorgian, those liberal bastards up at DC are on my back too" - me

[ibstolidude]

it just seemed slighty dubious how the americans go about using diffirent weapons and dressing as Vietcong seemed a bit pointless at being deniable. 6 foot white bloke turns up dead riddled with bullets who's going to belive its not an american?

Well than it was a good thing that wasn't done for "Plauseable deniability" then...

Perhaps fiction isn't the best source of info.

EDITED = and perhaps I should have kept reading to see the post by 11F5S

[Uncle Sam]

Plausible deniability

Plausible deniability is a political doctrine originally developed in the United States of America in the 1950s and applied to operations by the then newly formed Central Intelligence Agency.

Plausible deniability involves the creation of power structures and chains of command loose and informal enough to be denied if necessary. The idea was that the CIA (and, later, other bodies) could be given controversial instructions by powerful figures -- up to and including the president himself -- but that the existence and true source of those instructions could be denied if necessary; if, for example, an operation went disastrously wrong and it was necessary for the administration to disclaim responsibility.

The doctrine had two major flaws. First, it was an open door to the abuse of authority; it required that the bodies in question could be said to have acted independently, which in the end was tantamount to giving them license to act independently.

Second, it rarely worked when invoked; the denials made were rarely plausible and were generally seen through by both the media and the populace. One aspect of the Watergate crisis is the repeated failure of the doctrine of plausible deniability, which the administration repeatedly attempted to use to stop the scandal affecting President Nixon and his aides.

http://www.encyclopedia4u.com/p/plausible-deniability.html